Back orifice is a very nice remote administration tool. If it wasn't deliberately created to run silently and stealthily, they could probably have sold it for several hundred dollars a pop, and never made headlines anywhere (just made lots of money).
However, I take exception to your flagrant disragard for reality in your blind M$ bashing. I'm not a MS lover... far from it. I think their server tools are crashy, buggy crap. But their GUI end is better than any competing interface, even very pretty ones like beOS.
Microsoft, if you fault them everywhere else, is extremely good at making user friendly interfaces. You may complain about their inability to ship bug free products, their brain dead patch and upgrade methodology, their incompitent server technology, their flagrant monopolistic tactics... but you cannot fault their ability to make useful, usable graphical interfaces, and their continuation at the head of usability. (I admit I have a pet peeve when it comes to usability... I worship Jacob Neilson)
Microsoft created, on their own (ignoring their original theft of Apple's basic paradigm) most of the graphical widgets and design standards we live with today, even in Linux. It's no mistake that KDE and Gnome have a distinct resemblance to Windows... Windows has an excellent GUI.
Microsoft has a habit of releasing crappy products for versions 1, 2 and 3, and finally in versions 4+ they generally start sucking less and less until they really don't suck much at all (though, by then they are major bloatware also). The fact that it takes them 4 revisions to get it right (four revisions they make us pay for) is unacceptible, but once they do get it right, they do a pretty good job.
I guess I don't have a particular reason to bash on your post... it's not like it really really bugs me, I read and enjoy/. every day, and this is the first post such as this I've made.
I've used the mouse myself, and there's a few things I can say:
It does not use the cpu to do its processing. Since there will be ps2 versions of the mouse, and the ps2 bus does NOT have nearly enough bandwidth to offload processing to the cpu, I can't see how it would work.
It does not work like the sun mice. It takes a monochrome image of the surface beneath the mouse 1500 times a second using a specialized chip inside. It compares each new image with the previous image to determine how much translation has occured, and in which direction. I've used it on tables, walls, my shirt, the floor... it works as advertised.
There will be two versions of the mouse... the 'Intellimouse Explorer', which will have a new shape and two extra thumb buttons, and a converted Intellimouse with the old shape and buttons. The one with only 2 buttons + wheel will only cost $60, the one with the new shape and buttons will cost $75.
Personally, I have a real problem with constantly having to dig crud outta my mouse... I'm hopping on the bandwagon. I'm not a MS lover, but I'm not gonna pass up a good thing just because they make it.
Slashdot Mirror
Back orifice is a very nice remote administration tool. If it wasn't deliberately created to run silently and stealthily, they could probably have sold it for several hundred dollars a pop, and never made headlines anywhere (just made lots of money).
However, I take exception to your flagrant disragard for reality in your blind M$ bashing. I'm not a MS lover... far from it. I think their server tools are crashy, buggy crap. But their GUI end is better than any competing interface, even very pretty ones like beOS.
Microsoft, if you fault them everywhere else, is extremely good at making user friendly interfaces. You may complain about their inability to ship bug free products, their brain dead patch and upgrade methodology, their incompitent server technology, their flagrant monopolistic tactics... but you cannot fault their ability to make useful, usable graphical interfaces, and their continuation at the head of usability. (I admit I have a pet peeve when it comes to usability... I worship Jacob Neilson)
Microsoft created, on their own (ignoring their original theft of Apple's basic paradigm) most of the graphical widgets and design standards we live with today, even in Linux. It's no mistake that KDE and Gnome have a distinct resemblance to Windows... Windows has an excellent GUI.
Microsoft has a habit of releasing crappy products for versions 1, 2 and 3, and finally in versions 4+ they generally start sucking less and less until they really don't suck much at all (though, by then they are major bloatware also). The fact that it takes them 4 revisions to get it right (four revisions they make us pay for) is unacceptible, but once they do get it right, they do a pretty good job.
I guess I don't have a particular reason to bash on your post... it's not like it really really bugs me, I read and enjoy /. every day, and this is the first post such as this I've made.
The Raven
What is the address for the G200-glx developers list?
Thanks.
- It does not use the cpu to do its processing. Since there will be ps2 versions of the mouse, and the ps2 bus does NOT have nearly enough bandwidth to offload processing to the cpu, I can't see how it would work.
- It does not work like the sun mice. It takes a monochrome image of the surface beneath the mouse 1500 times a second using a specialized chip inside. It compares each new image with the previous image to determine how much translation has occured, and in which direction. I've used it on tables, walls, my shirt, the floor... it works as advertised.
- There will be two versions of the mouse... the 'Intellimouse Explorer', which will have a new shape and two extra thumb buttons, and a converted Intellimouse with the old shape and buttons. The one with only 2 buttons + wheel will only cost $60, the one with the new shape and buttons will cost $75.
Personally, I have a real problem with constantly having to dig crud outta my mouse... I'm hopping on the bandwagon. I'm not a MS lover, but I'm not gonna pass up a good thing just because they make it.